Into Galacia

Wow, what a difference a couple of days make, in the past 2 days I´ve experienced my worst day on the Camino and my best. I´ve left the flat land of the maseta and now in the mountains of the Provence of eastern Galacia, and it couldn´t be any different. Also today I past under the 200 kilometer mark of my journey. I estimate to be in Santiago around the 23rd, we´ll see how that goes.

OK, the worst, how do I explain this other than the term daywalkers or a better term I came up with daytalkers. We left Astorga yesterday morning and started the uphill climb into the foothills. About 2 hours into our walk we started seeing buses pulling up along side the Camino and discharging dozens and dozens of people. In fact we got swallowed up in a group and had to kick it up a knoch to get away from them, they all had on their little baby backpacks for their walk. Now they obviously have every right in the world to walk the Camino too but what made it difficult was their nonstop talking, Every couple of minutes I would hear another group coming up on me so I would let them pass, didn´t do much good since another group would show up in a few minutes. Today I met a woman from Puerto Rico, we were talking and she all of the sudden mentioned how she hated yesterday, I asked why and she had the same exact feelings I did! It literally looked like we were all leaving the stadium after a game there were so many of them.

Now, the best, I am now in the mountain of Galacia, it is so beautiful. When we arrived in Rabinal del Camino it didn´t give away the surprise we would have today. When we started out it was foggy, the kink you only see in the mountains. We started a slow incline walk up and up and up, but the great part it was gradual. We arrived in the next village and the Camino provided. Yesterday I mentioned to my friends how I would like an old fashioned western or American breakfast, the Bocadillas and pastries are getting a little old, well to my surprise the bar we stopped in had Muesli and Cornflakes! And on top of that they had large cups for coffee! The day was starting off great. After leaving the bar we had a 20 minute walk to Cruz de Ferro, one of the waymarkers of the Camino, people bring stones from home or leave a note, I left a note for a special person, a person I never met but has touched my life. We continued on through the mountains and were rewarded with unbelievable views and moments. This part of the Camino was also the most techincal in that the trail was very rocking on the decents and there were a lot of them. Time wise this was my longest day, 9 hours on the Camino, but went 27 km. I feel like I´m in a true mountain hideaway, the village is called Molinaseca.

It´s always unbelieveable how your day goes, one thing that stands out is that someone you´ve met weeks ago and hadn´t seen in over a week all of a sudden shows up in the same spot. Mittu the Finnish girl I gave my poncho to walked into the bar we were taking a break in and I hadn´t seen her since Friday or Saturday, the days kind of run together. But the Camino provides.

Well folks time to sign off, I will post some photos when I have more time, thanks for the support!
Buen Camino!!!